According to Marvel editor Nick Lowe, things don't look great for our team in the first issue of "Cable And X-Force"--they're in a factory, filled with dead bodies, and surrounded by the Uncanny Avengers and wanted for murder. Subsequent issues will reveal how they got there and what the horrible thing is that Cable and his team have been trying to thwart in what Dennis Hopeless describes as Cable's "one last job" which goes as wrong as it possibly can.

That's the premise of "Cable And X-Force," which reunites the time-tossed, psionic (depending on when he's being written), cybernetic, gun-toting hero starting in December. Writer Dennis Hopeless will be joined by artist "Xtreme X-Men" artist Salvador Larocca starting in December in a story that sees Cable and his team on the run and in trouble.

Everything flows from Cable, according to Hopeless, although Lowe teases that his adoptive daughter Hope will be a large part of the book. "The crux of my original pitch and sort of the core of the book is that Hope and Cable... would like to live normal lives," and that the core of the series is how neither of them is really equipped for that after years fleeing up and down the timeline from a murderous Bishop. Hopeless' version of Cable is kind of a mess: his body is breaking down, he's lost his taste for the violence and he's being kept operational by one-time X-Men quatermaster Forge.

Specifically why Forge, Colossus, Dr. Nemesis, and Domino are joining Cable in this last mission are secrets Hopeless is keeping close to the vest, but he did says that Dr. Nemesis will be there for "medical reasons." For Hopeless, Cable wouldn't describe this as X-Force or the team as he would see it, but Hope is integral to the collection of character's he's assembled around himself. In that group, Colossus would be considered the muscle, Forge is the tech guy and getaway man "in a Marvel... sci-fi way," while Domino is the group's safecracker and b & e artist, and Dr. Nemesis serves as the group's resident mad scientist. Speaking to Colossus in particular, the former X-Men isn't too keen on being part of any teams following his possession by the Phoenix Force in "AvX," but a set of circumstances have led him to throw in with Cable and accused of murder.

Lowe says that if "Cable And X-Force" was a book, it would be "The Fugitive," with the Uncanny Avengers playing Tommy Lee Jones (as a group, I suppose). Avengers member Havok is leading the charge to capture X-Force, hoping to bring in his nephew in safely. The problem is, Cable won't explain his actions to anyone, putting him at odds with his uncle and the rest of his team. It's this complicated nature of Cable that's appealing to Hopeless, a character who has been a paramilitary leader, a would-be messiah, and a father.

"He's Steve McQueen in the 'T2' Terminator body," Hopeless feels and "Cable And X-Force" is a chance to wrap the character in a crime story and family story with this mismatched group of tough, dangerous professionals on the run. In spite of being a team, they will be sporting new costumes, and some of the characters have received redesigns. For Cable, the overhaul was more than cosmetic, and Hopeless says that there are story reasons for the team's costumes. The "mech arm" that Cable is sporting in the story isn't cosmetic, by the way--the Forge-designed arm is a necessity as Cable's techno-organic virus continues to ravage his body post "AvX."

As for villains, Hopeless says that the Uncanny Avengers will serve as the well-meaning heavies for Cable and his team, but that there won't be a central, traditional villains in at least the first four issues which compose the first arc. Hopeless is wary about calling the threats X-Force face at the beginning of the series as "real-world," but they will be plausible or grounded in things going on in their environment. We will see some X-Men monsters making their way into the book.

"Cable And X-Force #1" hits stores in December. You can check out a preview below.

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